Recent research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that approximately 384,000 needle sticks or similar injuries occur among health care workers in U.S. hospitals each year. Unfortunately, each accidental needle stick has the potential to expose a health care worker to a life-threatening virus such as hepatitis or HIV. In addition to the needle sticks that occur in hospitals, accidental needle sticks can also occur in other health care settings. For example, needle stick injuries can occur at clinics or during home health care. In fact, some studies have estimated that over 600,000 needle sticks occur in the U.S. each year, and approximately 1,000 of these accidental needle sticks result in a life-threatening infection.
For each accidental needle stick, health care providers are obligated to test and counsel the exposed worker. Further, follow-up testing for HIV must be conducted approximately six months after the exposure. It is to be appreciated that the costs associated with the testing, lab work, the worker's lost time, and the associated tracking and administrative costs, can be considerable.
Accidental needle sticks can occur in several ways. For example, sudden movement by the patient can cause a health care worker to lose control of a syringe, resulting in injury. Attempts to manually recap a needle following an injection can also result in injury. Moreover, injuries often result when contaminated, unprotected needles are left unattended or disposed of improperly. In addition to accidental needle sticks, unnecessary exposure to bloodborne pathogens can result when a health care worker mistakenly reuses a contaminated needle on a patient.
One particular type of syringe that is prone to needle stick injuries is the fillable injection syringe. In overview, these fillable injection syringes are designed to be filled with a medicament from a medicament vial by the same user that administers an injection. Heretofore, a typical procedure has involved removing a cap that covers the sharp needle tip of the fillable injection syringe. With the needle exposed, the needle tip is inserted into a vial containing medicament. This step generally occurs just prior to an injection. Next, the plunger is depressed to void the syringe chamber of air. With the syringe voided, the plunger is retracted to draw a specified quantity of medicament into the syringe chamber. Once the medicament has been loaded into the syringe, the needle is then inserted into a patient and the plunger is depressed to inject the medicament into the patient. After the injection, the needle is removed from the patient and often must be manually recapped to protect the contaminated needle. After recapping, it is often difficult to distinguish between used and unused syringes.
In light of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fillable medical syringe that passively covers and protects the needle of the syringe after first filling the syringe with medicament and then injecting the medicament into a patient. It is another object of the present invention to provide a fillable syringe which guards the needle prior to an injection procedure and uses the same guard to passively guard the needle after an injection procedure. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a passively guarded, fillable injection syringe in which the position of the needle guard is controlled and regulated by plunger movements that are required in a typical fill and inject procedure.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a fillable injection syringe having an integral mechanism that prevents reuse of the syringe (after use and contamination) by disabling the plunger at the completion of an injection procedure. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a protective device for a medical syringe that is easy to use, relatively simple to implement, and comparatively cost effective.